ClioSport.net

Register a free account today to become a member!
Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read more here.

Khumo V700 trackday/road legal rubber- any info?



Picked up a full set of these for an unbelievable price mainly for use through the summer and on a few track days I have coming up.

I've heard on the grape vine that these can be quite pressure sensitive so was wondering if anyone *inferno?* has got some words of advice or experience with running them on the road & track (temps, pressures, wear rates etc..)

Thanks :)
 
I should also add that they are the soft compound, but at £40 a tyre fitted i'm not exactly complaining!

I expect to get about 3000-3500 miles max out of the set based on a wear rating of only 50! Whatever happens it should be a fun 3-4k:cool:
 
Sorry chap can't get other sizes, just a one off at the moment :(

The p-neros on the car have been great, handled a hard day at brands without any major upsets but after another day at Snet next week they will be bald, well past illegal :(, I was considering getting some partworns just to throw on for next week and then get a new set of road tyres post snet, but the Khumos came in cheaper than any partworns I could find so I figured just this once why not!
 
  182 Cup
Sorry it's taken a while to reply, works internet has been playing up. These aren't the same tyres that I ran on mine for a short while. I ran V70A's and these are V700's.

I found this on the V700's though - http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Kumho&tireModel=ECSTA+V700

I'm a bit confused to be honest! I'm not sure if these have superseded the V70A's or not. I couldn't find the V700's on Kumho's own website, but I also couldn't find the V70A's on the tirerack site in the link!

I'm guessing that they're quite similar to be honest, the tread patterns are similar in design, but the V700's look like they might deal with standing water a little better - although that would also depend on the tread depth they have.

Going from my experience of the V70A's, my advice would be to check tyre pressures on a weekly basis and adjust as required and do not travel at more than 60mph through standing water! In the dry you should be able to drive like a loon and they'll just stick to the road! :D
 

Steve

ClioSport Club Member
  ST3 8.5
Sorry it's taken a while to reply, works internet has been playing up. These aren't the same tyres that I ran on mine for a short while. I ran V70A's and these are V700's.

I found this on the V700's though - http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Kumho&tireModel=ECSTA+V700

I'm a bit confused to be honest! I'm not sure if these have superseded the V70A's or not. I couldn't find the V700's on Kumho's own website, but I also couldn't find the V70A's on the tirerack site in the link!

I'm guessing that they're quite similar to be honest, the tread patterns are similar in design, but the V700's look like they might deal with standing water a little better - although that would also depend on the tread depth they have.

Going from my experience of the V70A's, my advice would be to check tyre pressures on a weekly basis and adjust as required and do not travel at more than 60mph through standing water! In the dry you should be able to drive like a loon and they'll just stick to the road! :D

This would put me off.

Important Notice: Kumho Ecsta V700 tires must be shaved to 3/32" - 4/32" tread depth for any autocross or track use in the dry.

Kumho advises that the Ecsta V700 DOT-legal competition radial must be shaved prior to use in dry conditions. If this tire is not shaved, excessive wear may occur causing the tire to wear to the cords prematurely in a localized area.

Tire heat cycling will not prevent the excessive localized wear of full tread depth tires but will continue to enhance tire consistency and wear on shaved tires.

The Ecsta V700 should only be used at full tread depth (6/32") for wet track and wet autocross use.
 
That is mainly for competition reasons, however I can see what your saying about the wear. I'll going to run them on the car for a few days prior to the trackday so hopefully that will help.
 
OK well going on the above and some other advice I have come across I am going to run them on the car at Snetterton. The forecast is showery so as long as it is damp and not puddled everything should go to plan, might treat the day as an education in tyres, keeping a close eye on temps, pressures etc and see what does what, I'll report back to let you know my findings :)

I'm also not going to shave them as Kuhmo recommend maximum tread for wet conditions, they also recommend some basic heatcycling prior to heavy use so I'll do that as well as I can on the road today/tmrw.
 
completely forgot to update this... so if anyone is interested:

I ran the tires for a day or so prior to Snetterton to get them scrubbed in, I decided against shaving them as the forecast was not particularly good so I figured I would probably be needing the tread depth.

I haven't used any other brand of track oriented tires, so I can only realistically make a comparison to the road tires I have used in the past - Pirelli P-Neros, Michelin PE2s & good old Toyo TR1s.

The first major difference was the ride & turn in, the rock solid sidewalls made the bumps in the road very noticeable but this translated into a more "involved" feeling through the steering. The turn into a bend was amazing; sharp, stable and non of delayed turn road tires can give. The mid bend stability, especially when you feed the power in towards the exit was also fantastic, very little power induced understeer just massive grip!

Obviously the dry traction was absurd, although I will say for someone that is still very much a beginner on the track the don't have the gradual loose of grip the road tires provide, its more of a grip, grip, grip, nothing if that makes sense so you have to be awake when pushing them as you don't get the gradual warning the road tire can give IMO.

I started the day in the dry with 30psi all round cold, couple of warm up laps and the fronts were pushing 36, so bled them back to 28 front, 26 rear. Being the soft compound they warmed up very quickly, so kept bleeding them until they were stable pressure wise. It soon became apparent that the dry and hot conditions in the morning were not ideal for them endurance wise, there was a lot of pattern-edge melting and I could feel them quickly overheating and by the end of the lap understeer was becoming more and more apparent, by this point I was wondering If I should have taken Steve's advice on the shaving :eek:

Luckily the day ended up being one of those unpredictable downpour/sun/downpour/sun days, so I got to test the tires in nearly every condition including standing water! :S

As the track temp cooled due to the rain the tires came to life as the super soft compound kept its heat so well, they were steaming in between laps and nearly bone dry after 10mins in the pit garage!

Come lunch time I took the tires off the car to examine them and it soon became apparent that more camber was needed. The car had been rolling a little more through the turns with the Kuhmos, probably due to the increased traction, as a result I had stiffened the shocks, but they still the where wearing unevenly to the outside. This done they seemed to be more stable heatwise, especially in the dry with much less overheating going on.

As expected the standing water was a bit sketchty; complete loss of steering/traction in the puddles, but surprisingly on the shiny wet track with no standing water there was still grip by the bucket loads.

The last thing that I was impressed with was the wear rate. The only come with about 6mm total tread & 4mm from the depth markers from the factory, so I expected the front set to do a day and maybe some road miles before calling it quits, however the wear was excellent, even on the fronts and I will get another couple of track days out of them yet, the probably lost within the region of 1-2mm which for such a soft compound I was more than happy with.
 
Last edited:

Steve

ClioSport Club Member
  ST3 8.5
Welcome to trackday tyres, the future;)
I had the conti 3's off mine after a week:D
RS2's the replacement, a bit harder ride but a lot more bonuses;)
 


Top